Miles's birthday

Miles is now 11 years old.

His birthday was on a school day, so we didn't do a lot, but he did get to open his presents that evening. He got some fun little things like Avengers playing cards, Pirates of the Caribbean piano music, and walkie talkies. Olivia got him an "artsy cat" puzzle, and Carmen crocheted him some farm animals.

His bigger presents were a couple of Lego sets and a remote control car.

He requested chicken cordon-bleu casserole for dinner, and of course, no Miles birthday would be complete without the strawberry cake.

Total solar eclipse

We had a once in a lifetime chance to go see a total solar eclipse, so we loaded up the van and drove to Boerne, which amazingly is the intersection of this eclipse and the annular eclipse we saw last year. We stayed with Crystal and Regis, who were also hosting Jake and his kids who drove from Utah.

We went to the same park as last time, but unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate this time.

We knew it was going to be cloudy, but we figured we'd try anyway, and even if we couldn't see the eclipse, it would get darker.

We spent a lot of time eating circular foods and just looking at clouds, but the sun would occasionally peek through enough to see the eclipse happening.

We couldn't see the total eclipse, unfortunately, but it did get very dark for the few minutes it lasted.

The pictures don't do it justice, because my phone was making it lighter than it actually was. It was really cool.

It was worth the trip, even with the cloud cover.

And now I can throw away the eclipse glasses I kept since the last partial eclipse in 2017.

Damon at Academic UIL competition

Damon had the last of his Academic UIL competitions for this year. He has really enjoyed competing. Even though he forgets the rules and forgets to study, he always comes away with some hardware. In previous competitions he has gotten first in Dictionary Skills and Science and placed in other events.

The last competition was no different. He got first in Science and Calculator, and 4th and 5th in Dictionary and Spelling.

He also helped Timberwood get 3rd place overall, the first time they've gotten a trophy.

Carmen's driver permit

Carmen finished the required online courses and got her driver permit!

Amber took her to the church parking lot for her first lesson.

She said Carmen did a great job!

Easter

The kids are getting older, but they're not too old to hunt for Easter baskets in the backyard.

They had fun with their toys. The stretchy giraffes were a hit.

Later that evening we dyed Easter eggs and I hid them in the backyard for the kids to find.